Texas Senate primary in limbo as Jasmine Crockett declares voters have been ‘disenfranchised’

Crockett told supporters there would likely not be a winner declared on Tuesday night in the hotly contested election against James Talarico.

The Texas U.S. Senate Democratic primary election remains in limbo amid legal challenges related to Dallas County, where voters were turned away from polling sites, creating confusion.

As a result, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett told supporters that there would likely not be a winner declared on Tuesday night in the closely watched, hotly contested election against Texas State Rep. James Talarico.

“Dallas County should have the second-largest voter participation of any county in this state. We don’t have any of the results because there was a lot of confusion today,” the 44-year-old lawmaker explained. Crockett declared, “People have been disenfranchised.”

Hundreds of voters were turned away from polling places under a new voting rule adopted by Republicans in Dallas County, where Crockett’s current district is located. Voters were rerouted to their assigned polling precincts due to a switch prompted by the county Republican Party. In previous elections, voters were allowed to vote in any precinct of their choosing.

As a result of the confusion, a judge ordered that polling times in Dallas County be extended to 9 p.m. CT. Votes cast by Democrats from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. were ordered to be counted as provisional ballots. However, the Texas Supreme Court later ordered that ballots cast after the original poll closing time of 7 p.m. must be removed from the official tally.

Speaking to supporters at her campaign headquarters, Crockett said, “I have no idea how it is the clerks are going to know who was in line by what time, because the rule is that if you’re in line by 7, then you get to vote. And so once there was a court order saying you had until 9, I’m sure that there were people that joined the line after 7.”

She added, “They now are telling them that you have to separate the votes out. What this means is that we will not know what votes are to be tallied from election day out of Dallas County. For sure, we won’t know that tonight.”

Crockett is aiming to become the first Black woman to win a party nomination for U.S. Senate from Texas and, ultimately, the first elected to the U.S. Senate. Texas, a traditionally red state, hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1988 and hasn’t had a Democrat in the Senate since 1993.

Crockett has faced doubts cast on her candidacy, as many questioned whether she was the right Democrat to send to the general election. While some arguments against her candidacy focused on her sometimes polarizing commentary against Republicans, including President Donald Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, supporters argued that her fighter style is exactly what the party needs to garner different results in the Lone Star State.

Crockett and supporters argued that doubts about her candidacy were not based on her merits but on biased views about her as a Black woman.

“I think that it speaks to the larger issue that a lot of minorities, specifically, have with the Democratic Party in general. We know that the most loyal voting bloc, when it comes to Democrats, no matter what part of the country you look at, is actually Black women,” Crockett told theGrio during an interview last month. “It is all good for us to labor, and then there are all kinds of excuses that have nothing to do with credentials.”

The vocal, former civil rights attorney and public defender ran a nontraditional campaign, largely focused on digital media outreach rather than traditional TV ad buys. Crockett sought to chart a winning strategy by targeting Black, Hispanic, and young voters who typically do not vote, even reaching them in nightclubs across the state. Texas has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the country.

Talarico, a white theologian in training, has instead positioned his candidacy for conservative and rural voters who have grown disenchanted with the Republican Party led by President Trump. The 36-year-old has also tried to appeal to young voters disengaged with the political process.

“My campaign has done a lot of work to get those young people to take ownership of the democratic process and hopefully remake this broken political system in their own image, seeing a growing backlash to the extremism and the corruption in our government, and it’s a bipartisan backlash,” Talarico said on election night.

The Democratic primary race was marred by controversy when Talarico was accused of calling Colin Allred, who dropped out of the U.S. Senate primary race, a “mediocre Black man.” Talarico denied making the comment and said it was mischaracterized.

Speaking on the drama in Dallas County, Crockett said, “Unfortunately, this is what Republicans like to do, and so they specifically targeted Dallas County, and I think we all know why.”